5.5 Monitoring and Enforcement of Licensing and Health and Safety Requirements

5.5.1 Inspections for licensed CCDF providers Licensing inspectors must perform at least one annual, unannounced inspection of each licensed CCDF provider for compliance with all child care licensing standards, including an inspection for compliance with health and safety and fire standards. Lead Agencies must conduct at least one pre-licensure inspection for compliance with health, safety, and fire standards of each child care provider and facility in the State/Territory. a. Licensed CCDF center-based providers i. Does your pre-licensure inspection for licensed center-based providers assess compliance with health standards, safety standards, and fire standards? [x] Yes. [ ] No. If no, describe: ii. Identify the frequency of annual unannounced inspections for licensed center- based providers addressing compliance with health, safety, and fire standards: [x] Annually. [ ] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: [ ] Other. If other, describe: iii. Does the Lead Agency implement a differential monitoring approach when monitoring licensed center-based providers? [ ] Yes. If yes, describe how the differential monitoring approach is representative of the full complement of health and safety requirements. [x] No. If no, describe: Montana does not have a differential monitoring approach and only utilizes full annual licensing inspections. iv. Identify which department or agency is responsible for completing the inspections for licensed center-based providers. The child care licensor assigned to that county completes the annual inspection for the DPHHS. b. Licensed CCDF family child care providers i. Does your pre-licensure inspection for licensed family child care homes assess compliance with health standards, safety standards, and fire standards? [x] Yes. [ ] No. If no, describe: ii. Identify the frequency of annual unannounced inspections for licensed family child care homes addressing compliance with health, safety, and fire standards: [x] Annually. [ ] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: [ ] Other. If other, describe: iii. Does the Lead Agency implement a differential monitoring approach when monitoring licensed family child care providers? [ ] Yes. If yes, describe how the differential monitoring approach is representative of the full complement of health and safety requirements. [x] No. If no, describe: Montana does not have a differential monitoring approach and only utilizes full annual licensing inspections. iv. Identify which department or agency is responsible for completing the inspections for licensed family child care providers. The child care licensor assigned to that county completes the annual inspection for the DPHHS. c. Licensed in-home CCDF child care providers i. Does your Lead Agency license CCDF in-home child care (care in the child’s own home) providers? [x] No. [ ] Yes. If yes, does your pre-licensure inspection for licensed in-home providers assess compliance with health, safety, and fire standards? [ ] Yes. [ ] No. If no, describe: ii. Identify the frequency of annual unannounced inspections for licensed in-home child care providers for compliance with health, safety, and fire standards completed: [ ] Annually. [ ] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: [x] Other. If other, describe: Montana does not have licensed in-home care. iii. Does the Lead Agency implement a differential monitoring approach when monitoring licensed in-home child care providers? [ ] Yes. If yes, describe how the differential monitoring approach is representative of the full complement of health and safety requirements. [x] No. iv. Identify which department or agency is responsible for completing the inspections for licensed in-home providers. Montana does not have licensed in-home care. 5.5.2 Inspections for license-exempt providers Licensing inspectors must perform at least one annual monitoring visit of each license-exempt CCDF provider for compliance with health, safety, and fire standards. Inspections for relative providers will be addressed in subsection 5.8. Describe the policies and practices for the annual monitoring of: a. License-exempt CCDF center-based child care providers i. Identify the frequency of inspections for compliance with health, safety, and fire standards for license-exempt center-based providers: [ ] Annually. [ ] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: [x] Other. If other, describe: Montana does not have license-exempt centers. ii. Does the Lead Agency implement a differential monitoring approach when monitoring license-exempt center-based providers? [ ] Yes. If yes, describe how the differential monitoring approach is representative of the full complement of health and safety requirements. [x] No. iii. Identify which department or agency is responsible for completing the inspections for license-exempt center-based CCDF providers. Montana does not have license- exempt centers. b. License-exempt CCDF family child care providers i. Identify the frequency of the inspections of license-exempt family child care providers to determine compliance with health, safety, and fire standards: [ ] Annually. [ ] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: [x] Other. If other, describe: On January 30, 2024, the Lead Agency received a Preliminary Notice of Non-Compliance from the Office of Child Care. This letter indicates the results of Montana’s Monitoring conducted on July 11￿ 13, 2023. OCC found the Lead Agency does not post annual inspection reports for CCDF license-exempt Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) providers for minimum of 3 years of results to the Lead Agency’s consumer education website. The Lead Agency will publish annual inspection reports for Family, Friend, and Neighbor license-exempt providers (FFN). These inspection reports were not being routinely published. This is work is underway with FFN inspection reports being published as providers complete their annual inspections with Lead Agency facility inspectors and reports will be maintained on the website for 3 years. The Lead Agency expects to be in compliance with this provision by January 2025. ii. Does the Lead Agency implement a differential monitoring approach when monitoring license-exempt family child care providers? [ ] Yes. If yes, describe how the differential monitoring approach is representative of the full complement of health and safety requirements. [x] No. iii. Identify which department or agency is responsible for completing the inspections for license-exempt family child care providers. The Lead Agency’s Child Care Licensing program conducts these inspections. 5.5.3 Inspections for CCDF license-exempt in-home child care providers Lead Agencies may develop alternate monitoring requirements for care provided in the child’s home that are appropriate to the setting. This flexibility cannot be used to bypass the monitoring requirement altogether. a. Describe the requirements for the annual monitoring of CCDF license-exempt in-home child care (care in the child’s own home) providers, including if monitoring is announced or unannounced, occurs more frequently than once per year, and if differential monitoring procedures are used. Announced inspections are conducted annually and follow similar monitoring procedures used in licensed facilities. However, on January 30, 2024, the Lead Agency received a Preliminary Notice of Non-Compliance from the Office of Child Care. This letter indicates the results of Montana’s Monitoring conducted on July 11￿ 13, 2023. OCC found the Lead Agency does not post annual inspection reports for CCDF license-exempt Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) providers for minimum of 3 years of results to the Lead Agency’s consumer education website. The Lead Agency will publish annual inspection reports for Family, Friend, and Neighbor license-exempt providers (FFN). These inspection reports were not being routinely published. This is work is underway with FFN inspection reports being published as providers complete their annual inspections with Lead Agency facility inspectors and reports will be maintained on the website for 3 years. The Lead Agency expects to be in compliance with this provision by January 2025. b. List the entity(ies) in your State/Territory responsible for conducting inspections of license-exempt CCDF in-home child care (care in the child’s own home) providers: Child Care Licensors conduct all licensed-exempt in-home inspections. 5.5.4 Posting monitoring and inspection reports Lead Agencies must post monitoring and inspection reports on their consumer education website for each licensed and CCDF child care provider, except in cases where the provider is related to all the children in their care. These reports must include the results of required annual monitoring visits and visits due to major substantiated complaints about a provider’s failure to comply with health and safety requirements and child care policies. A full report covers everything in the monitoring visit, including areas of compliance and non-compliance. If the Lead Agency does not produce any reports that include areas of compliance, the website must include information about all areas covered by a monitoring visit. The reports must be in plain language or provide a plain language summary Lead Agency and be timely to ensure that the results of the reports are available and easily understood by parents when they are deciding on a child care provider. Lead Agencies must post at least 3 years of monitoring and inspection reports. a. Does the Lead Agency post: i. [x] Pre-licensing inspection reports for licensed programs. ii. [ ] Full monitoring and inspection reports that include areas of compliance and non-compliance for all non-relative providers eligible to provide CCDF services. iii. [ ] Monitoring and inspection reports that include areas of non-compliance only, with information about all areas covered by a monitoring visit posted separately on the website (e.g., a blank checklist used by monitors) for all non-relative providers eligible to provide CCDF services. If checked, provide a direct URL/website link to the website where a blank checklist is posted: iv. [x] Other. Describe: On January 30, 2024, the Lead Agency received a Preliminary Notice of Non-Compliance from the Office of Child Care. This letter indicates the results of Montana’s Monitoring conducted on July 11￿ 13, 2023. OCC found the Lead Agency does not post annual inspection reports for CCDF license-exempt Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) providers for minimum of 3 years of results to the Lead Agency’s consumer education website. The Lead Agency will publish annual inspection reports for Family, Friend, and Neighbor license-exempt providers (FFN). These inspection reports were not being routinely published. This is work is underway with FFN inspection reports being published as providers complete their annual inspections with Lead Agency facility inspectors and reports will be maintained on the website for 3 years. The Lead Agency expects to be in compliance with this provision by January 2025. b. Check if the monitoring and inspection reports and any related plain language summaries include: i. [x] Date of inspection. ii. [x] Health and safety violations, including those violations that resulted in fatalities or serious injuries occurring at the provider. Describe how these health and safety violations are prominently displayed: A deficiency statement citing the rule is posted along with details about how the intent of the rule was not met. iii. [x] Corrective action plans taken by the Lead Agency and/or child care provider. Describe: The provider submits a written Plan of Correction and the licensing worker enters the Plan of Correction into the survey tool. iv. [ ] A minimum of 3 years of results, where available. v. If any of the components above are not selected, please explain: On January 30, 2024, the Lead Agency received a Preliminary Notice of Non-Compliance from the Office of Child Care. This letter indicates the results of Montana’s Monitoring conducted on July 11￿ 13, 2023. OCC found the Lead Agency does not post annual inspection reports for CCDF license-exempt Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) providers for minimum of 3 years of results to the Lead Agency’s consumer education website. The Lead Agency will publish annual inspection reports for Family, Friend, and Neighbor license-exempt providers (FFN). These inspection reports were not being routinely published. This is work is underway with FFN inspection reports being published as providers complete their annual inspections with Lead Agency facility inspectors and reports will be maintained on the website for 3 years. The Lead Agency expects to be in compliance with this provision by January 2025. c. Lead Agencies must post monitoring and inspection reports and/or any related summaries in a timely manner. i. Provide the direct URL/website link to where the reports are posted: https://dphhs.mt.gov/ecfsd/childcare/childcarelicensing/providersearch ii. Identify the Lead Agency’s established timeline for posting monitoring reports and describe how it is timely: Child Care providers have 10 days after receiving the Statement of Deficiencies to submit a plan of correction. After the 10-day period the report is posted publicly. If the provider requests an extension the licensing worker can offer an additional 10 days before posting publicly. d. Does the Lead Agency certify that the monitoring and inspection reports or the summaries are in plain language that is understandable to parents and other consumers? [x] Yes. [ ] No. If no, describe: e. Does the Lead Agency certify that there is a process for correcting inaccuracies in the monitoring and inspection reports? [x] Yes. [ ] No. If no, describe: f. Does the Lead Agency maintain monitoring and inspection reports on the consumer education website? [x] Yes. [ ] No. If no, describe: 5.5.5 Qualifications and training of licensing inspectors Lead Agencies must ensure that individuals who are hired as licensing inspectors (or qualified monitors designated by the Lead Agency) are qualified to inspect child care providers and facilities and have received health and safety training appropriate to the provider setting and age of the children served. Describe how the Lead Agency ensures that licensing inspectors (or qualified monitors designated by the Lead Agency) are qualified and have received training on health and safety requirements that are appropriate to the age of the children in care and the type of provider setting. The Montana Department of Administration has requirements in place under ARM2.21.3702 that identify the process for recruitment and selection. The Lea Agency Child Care Licensing Program has a current job description for licensing inspectors that identifies the qualifications required for the position. This includes a bachelor’s degree in social and behavioral sciences, early childhood education, elementary and secondary education, business, and public administration. In addition, the position also requires 3-4 years of job-related experience. Other combinations of education and experience may be considered. The job description emphasizes strong communication skills with individuals from varying socioeconomic backgrounds, including children of all ages, child welfare professionals, providers, and staff with less than an eighth-grade education to master's level education and concerned families. The qualifications for this position also require knowledge of early childhood development, physical disabilities and other special needs and ability to research new problems and identify needed authoritative resources. All health and safety orientation courses have been set up so that licensing workers will be taking the same version of the trainings as providers. Additional resources are also available through the department and accommodations would be made for language or cultural issues. 5.5.6 Ratio of licensing inspectors Lead Agencies must ensure the ratio of licensing inspectors to child care providers and facilities in the State/Territory are maintained at a level sufficient to enable the Lead Agency to conduct effective inspections of child care providers and facilities on a timely basis in accordance with federal, State, and local laws. Provide the ratio of licensing inspectors to child care providers (i.e., number of inspectors per number of child care providers) and facilities in the State/Territory and include how the ratio is sufficient to conduct effective inspections on a timely basis. Each licensing worker is assigned a caseload based on the service area and the counties within that service area. The caseload may vary from area to area due to the number of providers in the area as well as the travel that is required. Each licensor is responsible for establishing their own survey schedule. Each licensor updates the Renewal Log monthly to reflect their licensing inspections. The Renewal Log is checked by the Licensing Program Manager and discussed with the licensor during bi-weekly staff meetings. The Child Care Licensing Program will review the provider to licensor ratio on a quarterly basis to ensure that the ratio does not exceed 120 facilities per licensing worker. To assist areas with higher ratios, the Program Manager may utilize licensing workers in other service areas to conduct licensing inspections. Overall, the workload and completion of assigned duties will be assessed quarterly by the Program Manager and any concerns will be reported to the Lead Agency Bureau Chief.